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The 27th annual Stony Brook Film Festival, sponsored by Island Federal, is in the books.
All the winners were honored Saturday at a live awards ceremony at Staller Center for the Arts, which hosts the fest, which ran from July 21 through July 30.
This year’s list of honorees also featured a first-ever Humanitarian Award.
Top awards went to Berenshtein for the Jury Award Best Feature, and Contra for the Audience Award Best Feature.
There was a tie for the Jury Award Best Short, which went to All That Glitters and Summer of Bees.
The Audience Award Best Short went to Ousmane.
Highlighting Saturday’s ceremony at Staller was a presentation by the filmmakers of Red River Road, winner of the 2021 Spirit of Independent Filmmaking Award. Writer and director Paul Schuyler also proudly announced that Red River Road was acquired for distribution by Gravitas Films, with the help and support of the Stony Brook Film Festival.
“Filmmakers have continually conveyed to us that we are the most hospitable festival they’ve been to,” said Alan Inkles, who is the director of the Stony Brook Film Festival. “We are able to treat our filmmakers like royalty because we have two constituents in mind when we plan our festivals — our filmmakers and our audience.”
The jury’s favorite feature, Berenshtein, was shot in Israel and Ukraine.
It is the true story of Leonid Berenshtein, the last surviving member of the World War II partisan battalion that located Hitler’s then-secret weapon — the V2 missile development facility — all while hiding his real name and Jewish identity from his fellow soldiers.
The feature intersperses Berenshtein’s story with footage of the real Berenshtein remembering his experiences during the last days of his life.
Contra, the audiences’ choice for best feature, was shot in Germany and tells the story of an unpopular professor who gets himself into serious trouble for making racist remarks to a freshman student, Naima Hamid, when she arrives late for his lecture.
After a video of their exchange goes viral, he is given one final chance to save his teaching career by the university president: prepare Naima to represent the University in a national debate competition.
The short All that Glitters is about a desperate teenager who snatches a rich woman’s handbag only to discover that her life is not as rosy as it seems. Summer of Bees tells the story of a young woman who decides to quit school and instead use the money her parents saved for her to start beekeeping.
And Ousmane is about a newly arrived immigrant living in Montreal who faces a challenging situation when he meets an elderly disoriented lady at the end of his workday.
Click here to view all the film trailers from 2022.
The fill list of winners
Berenshtein, 2022 Jury Award Best Feature
Contra, 2022 Audience Award Best Feature
Glob Lessons, 2022 Spirit of Independent Filmmaking Award
All That Glitters, 2022 Jury Award Best Short – tie
Summer of Bees, 2022 Jury Award Best Short – tie
Ousmane, 2022 Audience Award Best Short
Peaceful, 2022 Opening Night Feature Award
Lost Transport, 2022 Closing Night Feature Award
Lentini, 2022 Opening Night Short Award
Mila, 2022 Closing Night Short Award
Special recognition was given to Dr. Gabriel A. Sara (of Peaceful) on receiving the Festival’s first-ever Humanitarian Award.
Photo Caption: Stony Brook Film Festival award winners actor/producer Colin Froeber (Glob Lessons), writer/director Saskia Diesing (Lost Transport), writer/director Alessia Mandinici (Lentini), actor/consultant Dr. Gabriel Sara (Peaceful), Stony Brook Film Festival director Alan Inkles, and writer/director Dan Bronzite (All That Glitters) take a moment during the closing night festivities.
